Contra Costa Public Works employees were deployed at the foot of Lettia Road in Montalvin Manor, Calif. on Thursday, laboring to keep stormwater from flooding houses, according to a report by the Silicon Valley Mercury News.
A generator-powered pump conveyed water backed up at a catch basin through two thick, blue hoses to a storm drain about 300 feet south on Lettia, at Heather Drive, with a second pump pitching in when the rain got more intense.
From the foot of Lettia Road, water drains into a catch basin and into a 54-inch-diameter culvert under the Burlington Northern Santa Fe track and into a silted-up stream on the grounds of a shut steel mill in Richmond now owned by Pinole Point Properties LLC. According to the Mercury News, the stream historically flowed through a marshy area into a culvert under the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and through shoreline and tidal lands owned by the East Bay Regional Park District and the state and into San Pablo Bay.
Clearing the channel is the ultimate solution, but it is a lengthy process that includes getting all the necessary permits. In the interim, the county is seeking to install a giant pump or pumps that would convey the water coming to another nearby location at an annual cost of about $100,000 to $150,000, according to the Mercury News.
For the full Mercury News report on this story, click here.
